Housing Authority Police

An off-duty Baltimore Housing Authority police officer was shot twice last night apparently trying to stop a robbery at a Wendy's restaurant along Martin Luther King Boulevard, according to city police.The officer, who was working as a security guard at the restaurant, was in critical but stable condition last night at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, Sgt. Scott Rowe said. The officer's name was not released.An employee of the Wendy's on the 900 block of McCulloh St. walked out the back door of the restaurant to get some supplies about 8: 15 p.m. when he had "some kind of confrontation" with one or two suspects, Rowe said.

In an unprecedented expansion of local police authority, the Baltimore housing police will have the power to solve crimes and arrest people in any city neighborhood, instead of only at public housing complexes.In effect, Baltimore will have another 100 police officers who would patrol the neighborhoods and aid the city Police Department in stemming crime.Housing police officers, clad in gray shirts and black pants, will begin focusing on preventing burglaries, robberies and drug dealing. Until now, housing authority police could only act on crimes committed at public housing sites.

Far too many Baltimore police officers live outside the city. This shouldn't really matter, but it seemingly does. A city taxpayer is justified in becoming irate when an officer living in the suburbs shrugs off a complaint by saying, "What do you expect in this neighborhood?" or "If you don't like these things, move out."Some cities combat this kind of unsympathetic behavior by subsidizing officers' rents or securing favorable financing for their home purchase. They reason that every police officer who lives within the city limits takes a keen interest in his or her neighborhood, making a special effort to curb crime and vandalism.

The first thing to go was the king-sized water bed. The hulking piece of furniture wouldn't fit in Baltimore police Officer Charles Koonce's new home -- a city public-housing apartment.There's no wall-to-wall carpeting and forget about a dishwasher. But the location, Officer Koonce said, is close to work -- the Eastern District police station and city courts. The rent is $150 a month.And his new neighbors in the Brentwood, a 25th Street high-rise for the elderly, say they're delighted to have a police officer strolling around the grounds, chatting with them.

A 25-year-old man was shot and killed in a run-and-gun shootout last night with four Housing Authority police officers in East Baltimore -- the second shooting involving Housing Authority police in as many days.Last night's shooting occurred about 8 p.m. when the four officers went to investigate a report of shots fired at the Somerset Court public housing complex and saw a man running in the 200 block of N. Aisquith St. with .44-caliber pistol in his hand, housing police said.The officers began chasing the man and he opened fire on them and then ran, said Zack Germroth, a spokesman for the Housing Authority of Baltimore City.

A 28-year-old man was shot and critically wounded yesterday afternoon as he fought with an undercover Housing Authority police officer at a West Baltimore public housing project, authorities said.Police said the victim, Barry Patrick Gardner, a resident of the Gilmor Homes in the 1400 block of Mountmor Court where the shooting occurred, was in surgery last night at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. He had been shot once in the upper torso with the officer's 9 mm service pistol, said Zack Germroth, a Baltimore City Housing Authority spokesman.

A white police officer for the Baltimore Housing Authority filed a $3.2 million discrimination suit against the city government and Housing Authority officials yesterday, claiming that black officers are being promoted over whites without regard to qualifications.Paul Benson claims that although he was hired in 1988 for the No. 2 position in the Housing Authority police force, a less qualified black officer later was given responsibility for much of his staff and received a salary higher than Mr. Benson's.

In a dramatic effort to sweep away peoblems plaguing East Baltimore's Flag House Courts, an army of police and maintenance workers descended on a high-rise at the housing project yesterday to evict squatters and drug dealers and to give the building a fresh coat of paint, clean stairwells and even plant a flower garden.Operation ECHO, which stands for Extraordinary Comprehensive Housekeeping Operation, started at 9 a.m. when 42 city police officers joined 30 Housing Authority police officers at 107 S. Albemarle St. to inspect the building's 118 units for illegal tenants.

It's called the Jamaican Black Mafia, but most of the members are Nigerians. Authorities say the group used a combination of violence and generosity to deal heroin in Baltimore high-rise public housing developments.Since last spring, its leader was wounded in a shootout with a police officer and two of its members were slain in internal disputes, officials say.And yesterday, a federal grand jury indicted two members of the organization on charges of conspiring to distribute heroin, possession of heroin with intent to distribute, and weapons violations.

A 7-year-old girl was found slain early today in an apartment in a West Baltimore public housing high-rise, according to police.Police were withholding the name of the victim and were awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.Sam Ringgold, a police spokesman, said police were summoned to the Lexington Terrace Apartments at 8:20 this morning for a report of a dead person.When they went to the apartment on the 14th floor, they were met by the victim's mother, who led them to a bedroom where the 7-year-old girl, who was clothed in a nightgown, was found dead.